Profile Review - ORM, Good GMAT, Poor GPA

OK 47 quant is passable for your target schools so I am not worried there. I do feel you need a better GMAT to be competitive at your reach schools and honestly, I would change your reach schools. Both are very stats oriented; Yale is cherry picking top scores and anal about grades (to increase their ranking) so thats just not a great investment of your time. You will have much better odds at Booth or Kellogg I think. CBS is a tough nut to crack right now because there are a lot of New Yorkers who have skipped their MBA because of COVID now applying EA.

The best strategy for ORM in ethnicity and work background is to apply EA so concentrate on those schools: Darden, Duke, Tuck and IESE if inclined (I feel they have much better outcomes - not sure about MBB placement out of Judge among those who were not in consulting before). And my former IESE grads are in Amsterdam & Germany so you are not tied to Spain. I really think 2 year programs are ideal so you have a chance to rerecruit effectively salvaging the value of doing an MBA.

I think the ECs you have will help you with the contribution essays for Duke & Johnson; possibly other schools: show impact at work and demonstrate contribution/leadership/well roundedness is the strategy here. The financial services piece will help with these schools as well where you could focus on pivoting your role but staying in the same industry as your Plan B for Duke.

For the grades bit, not sure MBAMath will help because your GMAT score doesn't indicate an inability to do math as much as the score is not super competitive for yoru profile group. if you have the bandwidth I would go with HBSCore and they have a class starting next month that ends 8/30. I'm not sure what your work hours look like and I love to plan in advance but its 5/21 and you have 3+ solid months to prep so it would not be fatal to give the GMAT another shot (or the EA since its accepted at a lot of schools.) There isnt a ton of wiggle room but there is some.

Definitely use the optional essay; within that, make sure they are clear as to why your MBA grades will be better than your UG grades.

MBAPrepCoach Thanks for the detailed response! I think Tuck got rid of their EA round a few years ago. Do you still think it's a good fit based on my profile?

you can still apply on Sept 1 for guaranteed interview and if you are of Indian ethnicity they take a closer look than some other schools before putting you in this or that bucket.

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Hi JB321,

First, I would like to say you have a very interesting profile in terms of relevant work experience and did a great job working in diverse roles during your work tenure. Moreover, you do have a good score on your GMAT; your overall GPA is ok and something that could be fixed easily in your case. All you need to do is back it up with some substantial examples of leadership, decision-making, and analytical skills in your work experiences and ECAs. Definitely, you can mention the reasons for your low GPA in your optional essays.

About your profile, you did well describing your roles & responsibilities, and all about promotions & professional accolades. However, elaborating more about your crucial projects assigned, examples of leadership, skill-set developed, and the impact generated during your diverse tenure. Moreover, since you want a career change into consulting, you need to give very strong reasons about why you think it is a good time for you to switch? What are your aims & aspirations regarding your career switch? Why did you choose this role? And finally, how would you link your past experiences and skill-set in diverse with your post-MBA goals? For your reference, I would like you to go through our article on career switch. It would help provide you with added insights.

Coming to ECAs, you have some relevant ECA. However, you need to mention your contribution, the challenges faced, leadership roles played, the impact generated, and the relevant skills developed through your ECAs to bank upon them! Also, add any certifications if you have them. All in all, you do have a robust profile. Just try to link your work experience, ECAs, and post-MBA goals by connecting dots between them in your school essays to mesmerize the adcom! You do have a chance at Fuqua (EA), we helped applicants to get into Tuck, CBS, Darden, and Fuqua in EA rounds. If you'd like, we are happy to hop on a call with you sometime this week to discuss your profile in length and further help you with your strategy for essays and interviews regarding MBA programs, feel free to book a free session with us at your convenience.

How to craft an Admit winning M7 profile

Cheers!
Neha Hadke
Profile Analyst & Channel Manager, MBA and Beyond
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Email: neha@mbaandbeyond.com

Hi JB321 hope you are doing well. Here's hoping to add a useful perspective

I see a couple of loose ends in your story

1. You come from a core IT background with 6 years of great project management experience. However, you wish to now suddenly transition into impact consulting post-MBA. I do not see a clear connection to the social impact domain here, not even in your ECs.

2. Your ECs seem dated mostly centered around college activities. I am unable to see a continued association with any cause you may be passionate about.

Your GMAT alone will not get you the best possible admit but you need to introspect deeply to discover your true motivation for MBA and non profit consulting domain, and then make a conscientious strategy to achieve goals so that you can also leverage skills from your career trajectory so far. Possibly consider some other goal in the short/mid term as that would seem more reasonable such as product strategy or management.

Here are some ideas on how to ace your goals strategy

Compelling Goals Strategy 101

Best wishes